Dining At SkyCity At The Needle | Seattle

One Hour In Seattle

The downfall of traveling as a career is sometimes you only have a very short time somewhere and you have to pick the top destination that excites you about that one particular place and focus on that.

On a drive from Vancouver to Portland, Oregon, I drove through Seattle at dinner time. I’d never heard much about Seattle, so I went onto trusty old TripAdvisor to scope out the most popular things to do, and the restaurant SkyCity at the Needle stood out. I had been intending to go to the Pike Place Markets but the dreary January rain had made the traffic a nightmare; and it had taken me a few hours to get through the US border in my car.

The motto on their website is Sky, Sea, Scallops and they invite you to savour all they have to offer at 500feet with a 360 panorama view of the twinkling city lights. I don’t need to be asked twice. It’s the world’s oldest tower of its sort and has the second oldest revolving restaurant, the first being in Hawaii. It was built for Worlds Fair in 1962, and I love being on top of the world, even if it’s only in a tower for an hour. I drove past the headquarters of Microsoft on the way to the tower, and when I was there discovered that Bill Gates had won a dinner at the SkyCity restaurant when he was just 11 years old.

Oysters on the halfshell. Photo credit AuthorUnknown Photographic Art

After valet parking to make the most of my time, I discovered if you buy dinner in the restaurant your get the observation deck entry for free, so there’s my travel hack right there. I settled myself in with freshly shucked oysters in the half shell and a berry cocktail and enjoyed the revolving view. It was a super hard choice as also on offer was a wild salmon sampler, Dungeness crab cakes or ahi poke. I following that up with pan roasted wild king salmon and morel mushroom creme, which was amazing and cooked rare to perfection. There were other Pacific North West offerings on the menu like pan roasted Alaskan halibut, snake river farms American Kobe steak and lobster tail, or the more exotic Bering Sea king crab legs.

Wild King Salmon. Photo credit AuthorUnknown Photographic Art

SkyCity At The Space Needle – Put It On Your List

A trip up to the observation deck, some photo ops, and I was on my way again. I hope you have more time and get to visit the other sights Seattle has to offer like the flying fish, Pike Place Markets, a moonlit dinner cruise straight out of Sleepless in Seattle or a canoe ride through the arbouretum, but the Pacific Coast Highway 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles was calling my name.

Naomi DePlume

Naomi is an Australian who loves to wander the globe, collecting tales, adventures and friends as she goes. She has visited every continent except Antarctica and has driven most of the way around Europe, North America and Australia. Cruising has been one of the highlights of her travels, but she's happiest on a beach with her camera at sunrise.